Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
The management of large amounts of data is an important part of many research efforts. Quantitative data are inputted, stored, manipulated, and analyzed using such familiar tools as spreadsheets, database management programs like dBASE or Paradox, and statistics packages. However, some text based data such as bibliographies, text for content analysis, committee hearing transcripts, and historical information are not easily processed using such software. Statistics packages can handle only single words as string variables, and spreadsheets can usefully manage only short segments of text. Traditional database management programs can store and manipulate longer text segments, but many are limited to roughly three lines of text per entry or field unless they have a feature called a memo field to be discussed below.
When we covered this topic for PS three years ago, we concluded that high end word processing packages should be considered first by most scholars who work with text data. We noted that advanced word processors contain search and sort capabilities that may be sufficient for many needs.
1. Grafton, Carl and Permaloff, Anne, “Word Processing and Text Based Data Base Management,” PS: Political Science and Politics XX, 3 (Summer 1987), 801–811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. A disk cache is a program that automatically stores in RAM files read from disk. If the host software such as a database management program attempts to access the disk drive for the same files a second time, those files will not come from the relatively slow disk drive but from the much quicker RAM.
3. We have been asked why more Macintosh programs are not covered in our PS articles. There are two main reasons. First, companies and individuals that market Mac software are much less inclined to supply review copies. Second, there are fewer Mac programs relative to IBM. This relationship is not likely to change since software manufacturers are now emphasizing IBM program production to take advantage of the new Windows environment.
4. This article is approximately .037 megabytes in length.